


Another Bad Romance

by TheodoreR



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Enemies to Lovers, Gryffindor!Liam, Hogwarts, M/M, Muggle-born!Liam, Pureblood!Theo, Slow Burn, Slytherin!Theo, Thiam
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-02-16 12:22:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13053918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheodoreR/pseuds/TheodoreR
Summary: (HOGWARTS AU)Liam can’t remember who started it.The Slytherins say that it was him, a little wild eleven years old who snapped at Theo for no reasons, literally kicking him out of his wagon on their first journey to Hogwarts, screaming and biting like an animal. Like a rabid dog.The Gryffindors says that it was Theo, that he started heavily provoking Liam right away, making one evil comment after the other, making Liam loose it just for the joy of it. Like a sociopath.Liam really can’t remember who’s right, but the truth is that he’s a muggle-born with IED who can’t control himself and Theo is a self-entitled pureblood asshole with a sharp tongue and racist beliefs, so it doesn’t really matter who started it: it was always meant to happen.





	1. PROLOGUE

 

 

It starts in the same way every bad romance always starts, with the two teens who can’t stand each other getting paired up in class for an assignment, and it ends in the same way every bad romance always ends, with the two of them making out like there’s no life beside each other’s lips.

Except that Liam's life is not a bad romance. It’s not even a _good_ one, it’s just a damn joke.

“Mr. Dunbar with Mr. Raeken” professor McGonagall has said and the whole class is silent now. 

A damn fucking joke.

 

 * * * * * * *

 

 

Liam can’t remember who started it.

The Slytherins say that it was him, a little wild eleven years old who snapped at Theo for no reasons, literally kicking him out of his wagon on their first journey to Hogwarts, screaming and biting like an animal. Like a rabid dog.

The Gryffindors say that it was Theo, that he started heavily provoking Liam right away, making one evil comment after the other, making Liam lose it just for the sake of it. Like a sociopath.

Liam can’t actually remember who’s right, but the truth is that he’s a muggle-born with IED who can’t control himself and Theo is a self-entitled pureblood asshole with a sharp tongue and racist beliefs, so it doesn’t really matter who started it: it was always meant to happen.

And it happened: they hated each others with passion for six long years, since they first met on the train. The hate never was less than that, but Liam can say for certain that there were steps along the way in which it grew even stronger: the first easily being the moment in which the Talking Hat screamed   _Gryffindor_  right above Liam’s head and _Slytherin_  before it even touched Theo’s. The second one being when both Liam and Theo entered the Quidditch team of their houses, giving a new meaning to _fierce competition_. The third one is of course the first time Theo called him _mudblood_ – that’s also the time the whole school found out about his IED, for what he did after. Theo stayed in the Infirmary for two weeks and Gryffindor lost seventy points. Liam doesn't regret it.

Every broken nose should count as an increase too, but the truth is that there’s no point in finding particularly meaning stages, because every single day, every single time Liam sees Theo, the hate grows a little stronger, just like that. And Liam sees Theo a lot, since they share most of their classes, which means that when McGonagall calls both of their names, during the first lesson of their sixth year, Liam has already reached a pretty strong level of hate for Theo. Like, public enemy number one hate, nemesis hate, _don’t pair me with him please_ hate.

That kind of hate.

Professor McGonagall, being the awesome, incorruptible woman that she is, doesn't give a fuck obviously. And so there they are, Liam and Theo, paired up together for the rest of the month like in every single bad romance.

And like in every bad romance, Liam is _so_ sure that it’s not going to end like it always ends. Unsurprisingly, he’s wrong.

Because the worst part about bad romances is that you never know when you’re in one.

 

 

 

 

Of course, what Theo did during their fifth year to Scott McCall and his friends, to _him_ , the real reason why Liam hates him, couldn't fit in any kind of romance. 

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just Liam being a collected and peaceful person.

It’s not like their task is to have sex, even though that’s exactly what happens at the end of the story, because, well, originality.

 

Their task is to choose a topic from the list McGonagall is writing on the blackboard right now, make infinite researches on said topic find every single information they can by any means –which includes the library as well as torture, Liam guesses -, write a super long essay and then pass all the information collected to the other students in the clearest way possible during a presentation.  

Their task sounds a lot like making all the hard work in McGonagall’s place.

Isn’t this exactly why she is there? Get to know everything about something transfiguration related and then teach them? Why _they_ have to do it instead? What is she gonna do in the meantime?

Watch them, basically. Judge them while they’re doing her job.

Liam kinda admires her for this.

 

He just doesn’t understand why she had to do _that._

It’s not like he hoped for her to say “Dunbar and Hewitt”, hell no, of course the universe would never allow Liam to have a single joy in life like being paired with his best friend Mason, but middle ways are a thing, they exist, there was no need for McGonagall to say “Dunbar and Raeken”. What did Liam do to deserve that?

Liam has a few ideas, he’s not a saint, but still, Theo Raeken is too much of a punishment for whatever he has done.

_(He never saw that Niffler before in his life by the way. That wasn’t his fault.)_

 

Liam still hasn’t looked at him.

He keeps his eyes fixed on the blackboard, on McGonagall’s firm handwriting, because if he doesn’t look at Theo then he can pretend that nothing happened.

The universe can’t just force him to accept reality if he doesn’t look at it.

Liam can just stay there and watch the blackboard and pretend to not have a partner yet. It could be anyone, literally. Liam still doesn’t have a partner and his life is just as bad as usual, not _more_ bad than usual like it would be if he had as a partner, for example, Theo Raeken, which is luckily not the case.

Not even Liam’s life could be _that_ much of a joke.  

 

The exact same moment he gives up and glances at Theo, a few desks behind him, the other’s middle finger rises up instantly, which is ridiculous since he’s not even looking at him. He keeps his big blue eyes –particularly out of place on his face, if you ask Liam, because you’re not supposed to have such pretty eyes while being so ugly on the inside, - fixed on the blackboard. Theo always manages to get on his nerves, which isn’t so difficult to begin with, since Liam has been diagnosed with Intermittent Explosive Disorder when he was nine, and a way to do it is to ignore him, because that angers Liam a lot. But the fact that Theo is managing to ignore him while _also_ showing him the middle finger is a new level of unacceptable and Liam’s Transfiguration book is accompanied with a loud _crack_ as it suddenly joins Theo’s nose.

 

There’s a lot of blood and McGonall’s angry lectures, but absolutely no regret.

Their task is probably not to kill each other too, Liam realizes suddenly.

He is _so_ gonna fail this assignment.

**

 

Liam doesn’t understand why Theo can’t walk to the Infirmary on his own.

 _“But I didn’t hit his legs!”_ he repeated multiple times and every time McGonagall seemed angrier, so he had to stop for Gryffindor points sake. Liam doesn’t get it, really, it’s not like Theo needs to be carried –which Liam wouldn’t do in any case, by the way, even if he had made Theo’s legs disappear. He’d just watch him crawl all the way to the Infirmary and he would have the time of his life, honestly.

But Theo’s legs work perfectly fine, as he can see while he walks fast right in front of him, holding his hands on his bloodied nose. Some dark red drops are actually staining the floor and Liam would love to be a Prefect right now, so he could take some points from Slytherin for that.

“You’re such a drama queen” he says, because Theo is not mocking him like he usually do, as if Liam broke his tongue too.

“I’ll take it as a compliment coming from you, I.E.D.” Theo only calls him that when he wants to be particularly mean –which happens a lot actually, since Theo is the most evil person Liam knows, _and Liam knows Jackson too_ – but right now it sounds like he’s speaking with his mouth stuffed with marshmallow or something. Bats wings maybe, that sounds more appropriate for Theo.

“I hope you bleed to death before we get to the Infirmary.”

After all McGonagall didn’t specify that he has to bring Theo to the Infirmary alive now, did she?

“Well, then I hope you slide on my blood and crash your skull open.”

“Whatever, if I slide on your blood after you already bled out I’ll take it.”

“Fuck you, Dunbar.”

“No, fuck _you_.”

The second they get to the Infirmary, Theo opens the door and Liam has already turned his back to it when he hears it slamming behind him, like doors always do when they dismiss each other. Except after a few seconds it opens again.

“We’re taking the Animagus one by the way” Theo says and then slams the door again.

Among all the topics McGonagall wrote on the blackboard, the one about Animagi was the one that seemed more interesting to Liam too.

 

They’re _so not_ gonna take the Animagi now.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is being bored an excuse to post a chapter of a WIP you don't know if you'll ever write another word for?  
> If not, then I have no excuse.

 

 

“Hey Liam, what’s up with the pouting?”

Liam is a little annoyed that he can’t even walk in his Common Room without being questioned immediately, as if one necessarily needed a reason to be mad, but he also needs to complain about what happened to him and Mason is once again neglecting his best friend duties to sneak into the Ravenclaw tower and be all diabetic with Corey, so Scott will do.

“McGonagall paired me up with Theo for a research that will probably take weeks.” He explains funereal and Scott’s face darkens immediately. Scott is not the type of person to just _hate_ someone, even with Jackson, who is his actual nemesis, always busy finding new ways to plague him, it’s not like that, Scott never glares in his direction first and he mostly just looks tired and exasperated when he’s forced to interact with him. He’s not Liam, basically, and he doesn’t actively hate anyone, not as loudly and openly at least, but the way his jaw hardens and his eyes lose all the warmth every time Theo is mentioned speaks a lot about what he’d do to him if he wasn’t the kind, forgiving soul that he is.

“Just try not to let him get to you, okay? You heard Dumbledore, a few more detentions and you can forget the match.” Scott sighs and Liam rolls his eyes, because he didn’t join the Quidditch team just to be threatened with his position in it all the time by the headmasters and the professors, but that’s exactly what keeps happening. “And we kinda need you, you know.” Scott adds with a smile and Liam smiles back pleased, because of course they need him, he’s their best Chaser, whatever Isaac may say. As if being an year older made him better, ridiculous. Liam doesn’t even know how he sees the Quaffle with his scarf flying everywhere –he apparently can’t fly without one or he’ll catch a cold and die.  
“I already broke his nose today.” Liam informs Scott proudly, looking absently at the flames creeping in the fireplace.

 _“Liam._ ” Scott sounds like a disappointed father and Liam scoffs.

“What? I needed to get it out of the way, it was meant to happen. Now I can actually try to work with him without killing him in the process. But we’re not doing the Animagus one, oh no, he can forget about it.”

 

**

 

They’re doing the Animagus one.

“Why are you so obsessed with Animagus, mh? You want to learn how to turn into an actual snake so your body will finally match your soul? Don’t worry, it already does, even without the scales you’re still the most viscid being in the castle.”

“Shut up, it’s the only interesting topic, you just don’t want to do it because I want to.”

“Well, you also want a bald man without a nose to commit a genocide, so forgive me if not indulging what you want is my way of living.”

“ _We_ _flipped the coin_ , stop complaining.”

“Yeah, you totally cheated.”

“You flipped it! How could I-”

“Mr Raeken, Mr Dunbar, I’m going to have to ask you to leave the Library right now, you’re disturbing the other students.” Madame Pince suddenly appears next to their table with her judging little eyes and Liam almost dies of heart attack right there. How can she be so hateful and silent at the same time?

“I’m sorry Madame, we’ll be quiet now.” Theo is smiling in that exaggerate and fake way he reserves to everyone who’s not in his strict circle of friends, but especially to the teachers. It’s ridiculous how it actually works most of the time, Liam can see from a mile of distance how fake all his smiles are. “I mean, _he’ll_   be quiet now, since he was the one screaming.”

 “Shut the fuck up, you were screaming too, snake!”

Liam can almost feel his skin burning under Madame Pince’s glare.

“Out. _Now.”_

 

 

“I hope you’re happy with yourself, I.E.D.” Theo mutters through his teeth as they storm out of the Library, after having basically begged Madama Pince to at least let them bring the Animagus books with them.

“With you less than twenty feet away from me? How could I.” Liam growls keeping himself from using the giant book in his arms to knock him out. They’re not going to make it to the end of this project alive if Theo keeps calling him that. “Now we need to find another place where to do this stupid thing.”

“We can do it in my Common Room” Theo smirks malicious and Liam just scoffs, not deigning him of an answer. Yeah right, he’ll totally go inside the Slytherin Common Room with Theo, why not, just after he jumped from the Astronomy Tower –it’d still be a less painful way to die.

They can’t go to his Common Room either or else Theo would be the one brutally murdered –which doesn’t sound bad at all, heaven actually, but he promised Scott he wouldn’t get himself expelled from the team right before the match. “What about the park?”

“You go freeze your ass out there if you want, I’m not stopping you.”

“If you think I’ll do all the work...” Liam starts indignant and Theo huffs.

“Then let’s start tomorrow, there’s no hurry.”

There is great hurry actually, because the soon they start the soon they will be done with it and the soon Liam won’t have to spend time with the worst exemplary of human being on the planet, but all he can do now is glance down at the floor swallowing uncomfortably. “I...can’t tomorrow.”

Theo seems confused at first, which is stupid because Liam has a very busy life and there could be tons of reasons why he’s not free to waste his time with him, but his face must give something away because Theo immediately catches up.

“Oh, is _that_ time of the month already?” He says mocking and that’s it, he wants his nose broken twice in a day, there’s no other explanation. 

“Keep your voice down.” Liam snarls glancing nervously around. Nobody is paying attention to them.

Theo smirks cold, the fake cruel smile Liam hates so much back on his lips. “Relax, I.E.D., people would never imagine that Dumbledore would let animals into the school anyway. _I_ can hardly believe it.”

This is when Liam usually punches him in the face.

“You know” He says instead, lifting his chin up and stopping in the middle of the hallway. “If you weren’t so horrible, we could go to the Ravenclaw Tower, or even the Hufflepuff Common Room, why not. They would let _me_ in. But you? I’m surprised they even let you into your own Common Room. Like, do you even have any friends?”

Theo stops as well and stares at him taken aback for several seconds, before snorting a laugh.

“What are you on about? I’m way more popular than y-”  

“Yeah, popular, exactly” Liam interrupts him skeptical, slightly proud of how he’s letting his anger flow into his words rather than his fists or wand. Scott would be proud. “I’m talking about friends, you know, people who actually know and like you and love spending their time with you not because your dad is some rich pureblood friend with their dads, but because they care. Not that you would know. I bet you don’t have any actual friend, like, how could you, when you don’t care about anyone but yourself?” Theo still has that smug, indifferent expression on his face because like always there’s nothing that can touch him and Liam tightens his fists around his book, feeling his anger rising even more at the fact that he’s the only one affected here. He hates this. He hates that an asshole’s words have so much power on him when he can’t even scratch him if he doesn’t go physical. “You might be popular but you know what, I bet if you walked out of here right now and lost yourself in the Forbidden Forest and froze to death or something, nobody would even notice!” Something finally shifts in Theo’s eyes as his jaw hardens imperceptibly and Liam enjoys the fact that he finally managed to get to him too for barely a second before realizing what he just said. How he accidentally worded it, specifically. _Shit_. “Or, I mean, if you fell from the stairs or get sick or whatever.” He adds quickly, clearing his throat awkwardly.

Theo’s face is still hard as ice and of course he’s not going to believe Liam didn’t say it on purpose, when his sister literally died from hypothermia in a forest. Liam feels a bit of his own anger shift from Theo to himself and his stupid tongue and for a brief second he even considers apologizing for the tragic gaffe.

But it’s just a second and Theo immediately makes him glad he didn’t.

“Yeah well, the only reason you have people that care about you is because they feel pity for the poor little time bomb.” He says cold and there’s no trace of amusement in his smirk. “Or maybe they’re just afraid you’ll have an episode and kill them if they’re not nice to you.”

“You’d know all about killing someone.” Liam says quietly before turning on his heels and walking away, not a sound coming from Theo.

This time he said it on purpose and he feels guilty about it as soon as it leaves his mouth.

Theo probably didn’t expect that, because Liam is usually the bigger person and he never goes there, even when Theo calls him _I.E.D._ and hits him in every spot that he knows will hurt, but the moon will be full tomorrow and Liam is already starting to feel more like an animal and less like himself.

He knows it’s not true, regardless of what everyone says.

What everyone says, at school, is that Theo killed her. That he didn’t just find his sister’s body, that he was also the one who pushed her in the creek and watched her die, all so he could have her heart and get better. It’s ridiculous how many people actually believe it and whisper about it at school, but Liam knows it’s not true. Not that he _actually_ knows of course, Tara Raeken died when he was nine and he didn’t even know who Theo was yet, so he really doesn’t know shit except what he heard, what everyone says, but he knows how people are and he knows a nine years old didn’t kill his sister just because he found her body, even if everyone likes to whisper about it, just like he’s not a psycho just because of his anger issues, even if that’s what people like to say.  

He’s almost at the end of the hallway when he glances back to see if Theo is still there, but he’s nowhere to be seen.

Liam keeps feeling guilty, but mostly he just hates him a little more because it seems he _wants_ Liam to be just as bad as him. 

 

 

 

  


End file.
